


Checkmate

by persephoneshell



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-07
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-07 17:12:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/750992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephoneshell/pseuds/persephoneshell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tom Riddle never lost at chess until now, but he's never encoutered this kind of strategy before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Luna used to like chess; her mother taught her when she was still alive and, after that, she played with her father.  
(She could never guess his next move.)  
She never played with anyone else. Luna realises all this as she wanders around in the Grimmauld Place manor and finds a marble chessboard, ivory pieces coated with dust. She blows; the pieces stir and come alive again. She takes the game with her downstairs to the kitchen.  
“Do you want to play?” she asks.  
No one answers and she ignores the snickering of the bewitched chess pieces. She likes to play against herself too.

Tom is sitting in the library, twirling a dark knight between his long fingers; it’s his favorite piece.  
(He likes to sacrifice it on the way to victory.)  
He prefers playing with himself – it’s more challenging than playing with most of his friends.  
“Can I play with you?”  
He looks up and sees a girl he’s fairly certain he has never seen at Hogwarts before. She wears a Ravenclaw uniform, though.  
“But of course,” he answers with a charming smile.

“Are you sure?”  
She shrugs. She’s the only one who doesn’t really mind because she has no one left. Severus Snape had objected, but Harry argued that no one in their right mind would ever suspect her of harbouring a plan. Snape had tightened his lips and walked out of the room.  
Harry lays a comforting hand on her shoulder and gives her the Time Turner.  
“Don’t forget to stop when you reach 1943.”  
She nods, smiling serenely. She likes new adventures. Snape glares at her, she wonders if she should hug him when she comes back.  
She lets the golden hourglass spin and counts.  
When she stops the Time Turner, nothing feels different but she realises she brought more than just her wand with her from the future.  
(It’s a white Pawn.)  
She wonders if it’s a sign as it starts talking in her fingers, complaining about the lack of air in her pocket.

Tom likes playing chess in the Common Room with his friends, or in the library against himself to take a break when he can’t solve something. Sometimes, he plays against some giggling girls who simper and sigh, asking him with a coy smile why he won’t let them win. He cocks his head, twists his lips in a smile of his own and says, “I take my games very seriously,” and the girls giggle some more, letting themselves be charmed in the hopes of charming him. It never works and he always wins.  
(He recognizes himself in them; he has the same hunger.)  
Sometimes, he plays against Abraxas Malfoy. Malfoy tries so hard to look important. He gazes at the chessboard with a thoughtful frown on his face before moving each piece with a decisive tap. Tom takes it upon himself to look bored, resting his head on taut fingers and glancing around when Abraxas makes his move.  
“Checkmate,” announces Tom in a detached voice.  
The Heir of Slytherin revels in the beetroot hue of Malfoy’s cheeks, in the stiff smile he forces on his lips and the twitch of his jaw.  
(This was his real victory.)  
Tom Riddle never loses at chess.

“Checkmate,” the girl announces twenty-two minutes and forty-nine seconds later, smiling serenely.  
The knight between Tom’s fingers breaks.


	2. Chapter 2

Tom stares at her with unblinking eyes in the Great Hall and thinks: she beat me. Then, he thinks that it must’ve been luck. But more importantly, he feels something lies, lurks hidden in the girl. He sees it like a freckle on her nose, he sees it in the way she smiles and in the way she talks. She has a secret.  
(And he will discover it.)  
He cuts his meat, and Abraxas could swear there is a shadow of a smile on his lips. The predator just found his next prey.

* * *

 

"What is your name?" she asks, her words the only sound disrupting the eerie silence in the library.  
"Tom Riddle."  
The name is said quickly, with a subtle distaste that does nothing to erase the charming smile on his lips. She exhales sharply and appraises him with a new eye. He's standing a little too close to her, looking at her with a little too much interest. _This is good_ , she thinks. _This is what I want_. Something heavy weighs down on her stomach.  
"What is _your_ name?" he asks, and this time, he looks a little hungry.  
(Information is power, she thinks, and power is his favorite delicacy.)  
"I'll tell you if you win against me," she answers, and she produces a chessboard from her bag. 

* * *

 

“I am a time-traveler. I have been sent by one of your most trusted friends.”  
The old wizard looks at her, gauges her - she isn’t unsettled and stares right back.  
“I never lie,” she declares, her voice far away and dreamy but her eyes set.  
Luna simply places the gold hourglass on Albus Dumbledore’s office and he believes her. Even if the truth hasn’t been lain on his desk, he would have believed her. Truth is written, edged and marked on her face. Truth is on her mind as well, and he sees that she can detect lies as well as he can himself. But truth is subjective, and Luna is ready to believe anything - that is why she is never taken seriously.  
(She’s not a Diviner but there is something of a Cassandra in her.) 

* * *

 

When she is thinking hard about her next move, the girl chews distractedly on a strand of her hair. Dirty blonde and incredibly tangled, it goes below her waist and he wonders - how long has it been since she passed a brush through her hair? He thinks about how much time he spends every morning taming his own dark hair into impeccable neatness and itches to do the same with hers. He'd probably have to cut it to get a comb through it.  
He can pinpoint the second she has found her move, for her face brightens immediately. She moves her knight right into his trap - an obvious one, at that. How could she win last time? She's not good at the game at all.  
(It's easy, it's boring. He doesn't like preys to walk straight into his web, he likes to watch them struggle a little.)  
He's almost disappointed. He takes her knight, sighs and waits for her to make a move, letting his eyes wander on his watch.  
"Check," she announces a minute later, with her trademark dreamy smile. The bell rings, she smiles apologetically and starts to leave.  
"Wait!" he says, a little too loudly, a little too sharply, and it is not just curiosity that stops the girl in her tracks. She smiles.  
"We have to finish the game first," he adds, stumbling a little over his own words. His cheeks have turned a little pink. He quickly moves his king out of danger.  
His eyes don't leave the girl for a second as she sits back down and makes her next move.  
"Checkmate," she announces for the second time and he realizes that he's going to have to ask someone her name.


End file.
